Getting Fit Takes Sacrifice And Dedication

Getting fit and losing weight takes time – and time is a luxury I have little of, so I’m forced to make the best use of what I have. To that end I’ve made a decision to step away from blogging.

Picture: super-c

Until a couple of days ago I had no such plans, but then something was said that made me re-evaluate my position.

Over the last few weeks I’ve come to realise that the important things in my life aren’t going to get the attention they deserve when a vast chunk of my day is spent blogging.

In the last three weeks I’ve made some excellent progress with my fitness and that’s largely due to the fact I’ve spent time exercising at the expense of reading and writing blog posts.

There are other issues involved in my decision and I’d encourage you to pop over to Teach My Children Well if you want to know what they are.

I’m getting fit and I’m getting lean. As of this morning I weigh 193.5lbs, which is half a pound down on Wednesday. I feel I can go the whole way now and that’s exactly what I intend to do.

I’ve enjoyed your support and I’ve enjoyed cheering you on as well. There’s no doubt that sharing my thoughts with you here and reading your responses has helped me to make progress, but whilst I’ve discovered that I can find the time to get fit, I’ve also realised that I can’t find the time to write about it as well, I hope you understand.

My biggest regret is that I’ve messed Tara and Dave about with my decision to step away. They now have to decide whether to continue with BlogToFit. I know they’re considering they’re own position and I also know they’ll post something next week when they’ve made their decision.

Please feel free to share your thoughts below but please understand there might be a delay in my response.

I won’t be dropping off the face of the earth, but I will be restricting my online presence for the next two months.

Thank you all for your support

AND…. Tara whose Sticky Fingers on the keyboard have kept me entertained and to Dave the Blogger Dad whose cartooning genius in the BTF header made me look better than I do – my special thanks to you both for being the most excellent colleagues and friends.

I wish you all well in your weight loss and fitness goals.

Dave

Weight Loss: A Statement of Intent

I went hard-line last week.

I deliberately set out to lose a significant amount of weight and I deprived myself in order to do it.

Picture: sylvar

I moved away for the ‘slowly building a lifestyle’ concept, just to see what it would be like to push the envelope. I’m glad I did, it paid big dividends.

The time was right for me to see how far I could go with some sustained effort and self-discipline – something that’s been sadly lacking from my performance for a few weeks now.

I love the concept of building a lifestyle. I recognise that it’s important to build some better habits in terms of exercise and diet, but recently I’ve felt there’s something in that idea that gives me a let out if I fail to make some progress each week.

I accept that losing weight is not a race, but nor is it something I want to prolong forever. I don’t want it to be some indefinite task hanging over my head – something that never quite gets achieved.

I want to reach my goal sooner rather than later and in 3 months time I don’t want to be writing I’ve only lost five pounds, but hey, at least I haven’t gained weight. It’ll be tedious to write about it and it’ll be tedious to be living that life.

I would much rather write about how good it feels to have dropped weight and enjoyed some exercise. I’d much rather read about it too!

Seeing Dave Wright do so well over the last two weeks has driven me to strive for the same results. I’ve been inspired by his achievements and it’s helped me believe that I can dig deep and do the same.

Like I said, it’s not a race, but the quicker I can get to where I want to be, the quicker I can start to work on the second part of my goal which is to learn to maintain my goal weight and thereafter work on increasing my muscle mass and strength. That’s where I want to spend most of my time and that’s what I want to build my lifestyle around. Dragging it out as I have, is like building a lifestyle based around weight loss. That’s not the lifestyle I want to be living.

Of course there will be times when I post that I’ve maintained my weight. It’s true that there are other factors at play with maintaining weight, including water retention, glycogen reserves and increased muscle mass, so I shouldn’t always see maintaining as a failure. But to be honest, most of the time, maintaining will be a result of my failure to do what’s necessary and endure the discomfort of making tough decisions.

It’s nice that I’m comforted when I’ve only maintained but it’s not really doing me any favours. At some levels it allows me to believe it’s OK, and it’s not OK. Living a weight loss lifestyle is purgatory and I want it to end.

In the coming weeks I’m aiming for a more modest 2lb loss, but I will err on the side of caution and steer closer to a 3lb loss than a 1lb loss.

If I consistently post 3lb losses then I can address that by eating a little more or exercising a little less. How good would that be?

A further statement of intent:
In four weeks time I will weigh 187 lbs
In eight weeks time I will weigh 179 lbs
In twelve weeks time I will weigh 173 lbs

Maintenance isn’t an option for me anymore!

Are you living a weight loss life style? Would you care to post a quick statement of intent in the comments?

Do You Eat Like A Dog?

I was watching my dogs eat their food and noticed how they just bolted it down. It looked as though the food barely touched the sides. They were finished almost as soon as they’d started.

Picture: timtimes

It reminded me of my youth when I was able to drink a pint in three seconds flat. It was my claim to fame and really impressed the girls…. almost as much as my ability to burp very loudly! I was quite the babe magnet! Oh yes!

Anyway, having seen the dogs eat their dinner in this fashion I got to thinking about the way I eat my own food.

I wondered why I have to take in such big mouthfuls of food, barely chew it before swallowing it and then stuffing the next mouthful in.

This type of eating is something I associate most with going to one of the many outlets of Burger Shack. I get my burger, sit down unwrap it from the wax paper and set it down long enough to watch the melting cheese and relish slide down onto the wrapper along with a slice of juicy tomato. As the aroma drifts up to hit my nose I reach for the thing and take a massive bite, and then another and another until it’s all gone. I can’t help it though. Food like that can’t be eaten daintily, it has to be devoured.

That being the case, I’ve stopped eating burgers. It’s over too quickly and maybe only five percent of the taste ever hits my taste buds. What a waste.

So can I train myself to eat more slowly?

Well, I’m trying to do exactly that at the moment.

Meal times with the children are not always enjoyable events during which I can sit down, relax and enjoy the food. Meal times are often hard work with the children all needing some level of attention. The smaller children need to be convinced to eat and the older children want to argue and throw strops.

I find myself bolting my food down just to make sure I get to eat.

Yesterday evening I decided to eat smaller mouthfuls of food and to chew them slowly and deliberately. I found myself conscious of the tastes and combinations of flavours. I started experimenting with different combinations of taste and I savoured each mouthful.

It took me longer to eat my meal but I enjoyed it so much more. The extra time also gave my belly time to tell my brain it was full. I didn’t manage to finish what was on my plate but I was satisfied.

I’m definitely going to try this again. But not at Burger Shack. I simply haven’t got the will power.

So here’s what I’d love to know:

Why do we bolt our food?

Do you have any tips to slow me down?

Are you impressed that I can drink a pint in three seconds?

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Failure Isn’t An Option – Or Is It?

So what do you do when you start a fitness blog with two other people and then you spectacularly fail to get fit or lose the fat?

Picture: fireflythegreat

We’re eight weeks in with the Wednesday Weigh-In and by my reckoning I should be in the region of 16 lbs down. That’s half the weight I wanted to lose at a modest rate 2lbs a week.

O – M – G !!!

What’s wrong with me?

Why have I lost a grand total of 1lb in EIGHT weeks?

That’s pitiful by anyone’s standards even taking Christmas into account.

The very best I can say about my circumstances is that I’ve maintained…. but then that’s not quite accurate. It’s more accurate to say that I’ve lost weight… and now I’m putting it back on again.

The BEST I can say is that I haven’t exceeded my starting weight. And I’m clinging on to that fact for dear life.

Clearly something isn’t clicking.

I don’t think any of what I’ve written to date at BlogToFit is outrageous nonsense or even dramatically flawed. I think my basic plan to get fit is sound.

So what’s the deal?

Well… I think I’m NORMAL.

Seriously, I think that I’m just the same as everyone else who’s trying to lose weight or get fit.

I have the same busy lifestyle where I’m trying to fit a quart into a pint pot – constantly juggling conflicting priorities and making a hash of it.

Prior to starting my own blog Teach My Children Well – which was intended to track my self improvement – I spent a lot of time reading blogs like Zen Habits, Scott H Young, Steve Pavlina and many more like them and the vast majority of them seem to advocate simplifying our lives and concentrating only on one major goal at a time for a month at a time (as per the links).

I’ve always loved that idea but I’ve never been able to do it. My life is just too full of other things.

There are too many urgent demands that I need to be dealing with right now. Real issues in my life that will come to a head within the next six weeks like the looming threat of a return to work and an overwhelming desire to avoid that by finding a new way to make a living, not to mention the fact that I have a four children to marshal around, along with all the attendant duties of a stay at home parent – I don’t feel I can afford to put any of those things off for 30 days so that I can get on top of the weight loss.

What I’m going through now is exactly why I came to the web. I was looking for the solution to my general inability to get things done. I felt overwhelmed all the time, which led to procrastination, which led to nothing getting achieved.

I’ve always kept an open agenda, because I’ve convinced myself that I don’t want to live my life by an appointments diary. Which is nice for doing spontaneous things, going where my fancy takes me and getting into the moment, but it gets nothing achieved.

Vast swathes of time pass and I look back and wonder how, with all that time, I managed to achieve so little.

I know I need to do less. I know I need to cut so many more things out of my life in order to get the important things done, which is why I chose to have only four priorities.

I’m cautious about following another hair brained scheme to trick myself into losing weight but if I don’t do something, in two months time, I’ll still be nearly 200lbs and I’ll still be without an income and forced to return to work and both of those scenarios are about as far away from my major goals as it’s possible for me to be.

I strongly suspect my personal organisation is the root cause of my problems. The open agenda approach means I’m doing what I feel like doing, not what I really need to be doing.

Are you organised? Does this help with your fitness or weight loss goals?

Or am I totally missing the point? Should I just pull myself together and get on with it?

Should I put fitness on hold indefinitely until I’ve dealt with my top three priorities.

What would you do?

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My Weight Loss Success Story

My name is Dave Fowler, I’m six feet tall and 175lbs. I would describe myself as being in excellent shape for a 41 year old and in good shape for a man half my age. I have a flat stomach and a good amount of muscle, but I’d say I’m more lean and athletic than bulky.

Picture: mandj98

I run three times a week mostly for fun and just to keep in shape but I also do the odd competitive 5K or 10K just to challenge myself.

I don’t have a gym membership so I’ve developed a few great body weight routines that I can do wherever I happen to be. I change the routine regularly so that I don’t get bored. They don’t take that long to do, and if I’m really pressed for time I can break them up throughout the day.

My diet consists mainly of fresh foods. I eat plenty of fish and white meat along with salad and bean dishes. Fresh fruit and veg is always available for snacks. The food is attractive to look at and being based on a Mediterranean style diet it’s very tasty..

I try to avoid processed foods as much as possible and if I’m forced to eat them, or if I sometimes choose to eat them (and I do from time to time), I try to keep my intake to a moderate level.

My approach to health and fitness is casual and fun and centred around leading an enjoyable lifestyle rather than a punishing and demanding routine. I find this helps me to stick with my plan.

I have an abundance of energy all day and just feel so much better physically and mentally. I feel much less stressed and far happier.

My friends and family all comment positively about my appearance and lifestyle. It’s great to receive such compliments and it certainly gives a boost the way I feel about myself.

I wasn’t always like this though. In January 2009 I was overweight by about 30lbs sporting a belly and a big old pair of love handles. 30 lbs might not seem like much but the extra weight was enough to exacerbate a back problem, which in turn affected my sleep.

The roll of fat was just ugly and unhealthy. It was unappealing to look at and irritated me every single day.

My eating habits irritated me too.

I wasn’t a gluttonous overeater, but more of a casual overeater. I didn’t really notice it happening at first but then I stopped and had a good look at the quality and quantity of food I was eating. It wasn’t totally horrendous but it could have been so much better but for a few small changes.

I ate what my family ate. And my family ate what I chose to feed them. I felt guilty that I was feeding my children so much processed food, mainly through what I thought was convenience, but it turned out that convenience was another word for lazy.

Claiming that I didn’t have enough time to cook properly or exercise was a lie. The truth was I chose to use the time to do other things.

I was fat and lazy, and if I didn’t do something, I knew I could get into real trouble.

One night as I sat at my computer typing a blog post, I felt the discomfort of my belly hanging over my belt and the waistband of my jeans cutting into my hips. I felt drowsy after eating a stodgy dinner and had a craving for sweet food – and of course I gave into that craving.

There and then, I decided that I would take responsibility for my situation and make the necessary changes. I wasn’t going to waste time with self-recrimination, I was just going to get on with it.

When I woke the next day I set about making immediate changes.

I realised that I needed to make nutrition a major focus for the day. Not just for me but for my family. I also knew there were other important things I needed to tackle like running the household and managing the finances.

When I thought more about it I realised that these were all interlinked, which made my decision much easier.

I resolved that until I’d got this area of my life under control I was going to ditch casual TV, computer games and other time wasters. I didn’t eradicate TV from my life but I was very selective about what I watched.

I overhauled my online life too and I hoped that my friends would understand as my replies to their emails and other messages weren’t the long winded cyber hugs I used to send their way, but instead, quick one liners with a big smiley face.

They were brilliant. They understood that I was trying to build a better life for myself and were very supportive. In the end it turned out that my communication with friends and loved ones was much improved – because after I’d done all the important things in my day I was much more relaxed and that shone through.

Changing my priorities in this way was great for my family life too. Rather than detract from my time with the children it increased it. I involved the children in as many aspects of the process as I could.

Budgeting, grocery lists, planning and preparation were turned into a family experience. The children helped with the cooking and as a result they tended to eat better because they had made the food themselves.

I hope they will also follow the example I set for them with exercise. They couldn’t do all of it with me but I tried to include them when I could.

I got them to count out my push-ups on the living room rug and they’d try to copy what I was doing. In the evening when I put my running shoes on for a quick blast around the block, I’d hand them a stop watch and ask them to time me. I then got them to mark the time on a chart and we plotted a graph together.

The whole experience was a massive boost to their education and self esteem. When they eventually grow and leave home I know that they’ll be able to fend for themselves. They’ll be able to cook, they’ll know how to exercise and how to look after their finances – and this is something I’ll treasure in years to come as I watch them thrive.

The truly great thing about it is I should live long enough to see it.

My lifestyle transformation was a slow process as I learnt how to cook from scratch and learnt how to organise my time and my kitchen. Exercise was difficult to begin with but after the first two weeks I really started to enjoy it, and actually found myself looking forward it.

It was largely a matter of trial and error – and there were plenty of errors – but my setbacks didn’t deter me.

Well, it’s January 2010 now and over Christmas and New Year I put on 4lbs in weight. I’m not at all worried though, as my plan allowed me to be more relaxed and I know it’ll only take me two weeks to deal with the excess – and then I’ll be in great shape again.

Who knows, I might even be able to drop from 10% body fat to 8% by the time I go on my summer break and look fab by the pool .

I’m proud of myself. I’m proud that I didn’t let another year slip by without achieving my goals.

Here’s to a great 2010!

Dave.

Want a bit of humor and motivation delivered via email every weekday? Subscribe to get each BlogToFit post delivered for free! Email not your thing? That’s okay, you can also subscribe via RSS – like all the cool kids do. It’s also free. Unless you really WANT to pay us.

Copyright 2009 BlogToFit.com. If you are reading this on any site other than BlogToFit.com or your personal feedreader or email, you may be viewing it on a site which steals content. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t trust any site which steals content.

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